Module D covers the net benefits and loads arising from the reuse of products or the recycling or recovery of energy from end-of-waste state materials.
As per EN 15804+A2, the following equation is used to calculate the net benefits and loads:
This is simplified with the use of the table below that explains each of the components of the equation and how you can clearly define them for your calculation, and for the verifier of your EPD.
Equation 1 variable | Declaration | Steel | Concrete |
MMR out | Amount of scrap content exiting the system | 1 kg | 0.775 kg |
MMR in | The amount of scrap content fed into the system | 0.480 kg (48% recycled content) | 0 kg (no recycled content) |
MMR out - MMR in | Net amount of scrap content produced by the system | 0.520 kg | 0.775 kg |
EMR after EoW out | The amount of emissions, resources and waste from material made from recycled scrap material. (EU average can be used in the calculations) | 0.38 kg CO2e/kg | 0.0003 kg CO2e/kg |
EVM Sub out | The amount of emissions, resources and waste from material made from primary materials. (EU average can be used in the calculations) | 1.76 kg CO2e/kg | 0.0084 kg CO2e/kg |
QR out / QSub | Coefficient of quality difference, where QR out corresponds to material made of recycled material and QSub to material made of primary material. A value of 1 can be used. | 1 | 1 |
MMR out: In this example, the product has 1kg of steel and 0.775kg of concrete that is recycled at end of life (Module C3).
MMR in: Of that, 0.480kg of the steel came from recycled material, while none of the concrete contained recycled material.
MMR out - MMR in: To avoid double counting, the amount of previously recycled material must be deducted from the amount of material going to recycling, giving us a net amount of 0.520kg of steel and 0.775kg of concrete.
EMR after EoW out: This is the emission factor associated with the recycled material. You can find this in the data card by clicking on the green question mark beside the resource name in the software (see below).
EVM Sub out: This is the emission factor associated with the primary material (also see below).
QR out / QSub: This factor is used for the quality difference between the recycled material and the primary material. For steel and concrete, this can be assumed to be 1.
This is how the above example would look in One Click LCA software:
The first input is Steel production, converter, unalloyed (Reference product: steel, unalloyed ), which represents the avoided primary steel production due to the recycling of your steel at end of life. It has GWP of 1.76 kg CO2e / kg.
The second input is Steel production, electric, low-alloyed (Reference product: steel, low-alloyed ), which represents the recycled steel that is needed to avoid producing primary steel. As such, it is entered as a negative quantity so as to give us the net emissions. It has GWP of 0.38 kg CO2e / kg.
So our net benefit calculation for steel per the formula =
(1.00 - 0.480) * ((0.38 - 1.76)*1)
--> 0.520 * ((0.38 - 1.76)*1)
--> 0.520 * -1.38
How this is handled in the software above looks slightly different, however, has the same end result:
(0.520 * 0.38) - (0.520 * 1.76)
For the concrete recycling, the inputs are Gravel production, crushed (Reference product: gravel, crushed ), GWP: 0.0084 kg CO2e / kg, and Rock crushing (Reference product: rock crushing ), GWP: 0.0003 kg CO2e / kg.
So our net benefit calculation for concrete = 0.775 * -0.0081
Or: (0.775 * 0.0003) - (0.775 * 0.0084)
It is important to note that the net output flows can be negative if there is more recycled material than material sent to recycling. This will result in a load on your system.
Also, the process of recycling may show a higher impact than the production of the substituted materials in some or all impact indicators.